This is very strange, but since yesterday afternoon, none of my Commander-X scripts are working. Actually, only the first line of each script works.

I wonder if ActiveHome is interfering, but it worked fine earlier this week.

Hmm...

Roland

I've found the way to disable HD Sleep Mode. It was actually under POWER MANAGEMENT in Control Panel. I looked up from another area (from DISPLAY PROPERTIES) and found everything was greyed out so I thought I didn't have Power Management at all.

Well, now all the scripts will work fine but SCHEDULES!!! I have added some lines in the WEEKDAY.SCH file but it doesn't work when the time comes. This is after I disable the Sleep Mode of the HD.

What I do now is put all the schedules in ActiveHome, download them to the interface. Shut down ActiveHome and run Commander X for all IF..THEN..ELSE stuff. So far it works fine.

The way I feel is I think there can only be "ONE" program active at a time. I mean if you have ActiveHome running, better shut down Commander X first or vice versa. Just a feeling, I could be wrong on it :)

Simon

WHAT WAS I THINKING???

When running scripts from a remote, you don't have to do all that fancy SETWATCH commands.

If you right-click on a particular unit (e.g. A10), you can select "MACROS" instead of selecting a module type. You can then define a separate macro for ON and OFF. Duh!!!

As far as both programs running at the same time, I've been running both ActiveHome and Commander-X together without problems. Once in awhile, Commander-X will crash, but I think that has to do with it being a beta version. I am just careful not to create a macro under the same House/Unit code.
(note: my ActiveHome program isn't running, but I'm still using macros stored in the computer interface)

Roland

I've got a new idea as an alternate to "Push a button to turn on lights when you get home". It's a very simple script.

Instead of manually turning on the lights in the house when you get home, why not have it automatically turn on when you pull in the garage?

Items needed:
Hawkeye II (will use only motion sensing feature)

I first set the Hawkeye to detect motion for B16 (obviously, you can pick any house/unit code).

For B16 on Commander-X, select MACROS, and use GARAGE.SCR (see below) for B16-ON. For B16-OFF, you can just create a bogus macro that does nothing.

GARAGE.SCR
----------
CHIME.WAV ; play a chime on computer (optional)
IF TIMEIF TIME>0400 THEN END ; if after 4 am, stop script
IF B2>0 THEN END ; if lamp1 is on, stop script
IF B3>0 THEN END ; if lamp2 is on, stop script
IF B4>0 THEN END ; if lamp3 is on, stop script
IM-HOME.SCR ; run light sequence macro

This script first checks to see if the time is between dusk and 4 am. If it is, it will then check to see if any of the 3 lights in the family room are on (at least one of these are typically ON when someone is home). If none of these lights are on, it will start the IM-HOME.SCR (the "turn on lights" script i used to manually activate as i pulled up the driveway).

Note: if you include in the IM-HOME.SCR to turn on at least one of the "check" lights (in my case, B2,B3,B4), it will avoid running IM-HOME.SCR multiple times in the event the motion sensor is triggered several times.

If you have a Chime Module from X-10, you can also set that to B16 so it will chime in the house anytime the motion sensor is triggered (not just between dusk and 4am). That way, you can also tell if someone has walked in the garage.

So whaddaya think?

Roland


** For people who haven't played with Commander-X, you cannot write IF/THENs like this: IF B2>0 OR B3>0 OR B4>0 THEN END
That's why i had to put them on individual lines. I'm not really trying to be inefficient. ;)

Oh crap, this message board doesn't take kindly to "less-than" signs. I've reposted the GARAGE.SCR script with the words "less-than" where appropriate.

Roland


GARAGE.SCR
----------
CHIME.WAV ; play a chime on computer (optional)
IF TIME(less-than)DUSK THEN END ; if not dusk yet, stop script
IF TIME>0400 THEN END ; if after 4 am, stop script
IF B2>0 THEN END ; if lamp1 is on, stop script
IF B3>0 THEN END ; if lamp2 is on, stop script
IF B4>0 THEN END ; if lamp3 is on, stop script
IM-HOME.SCR ; run light sequence macro

Hi Roland,

He he.... a perfect time you posted the script. I just order some stuff from X10 and it will include a HawkEye II Sensor. I will put it inside the garage. Another module I ordered was a Chime module and I'll make it to chime when the motion is triggered in the garage.

Now, I can go party until my X10 stuff arrives and not have to sit in front of the computer to do programming.... :)

Roland, million thanks to you on all the replies on this Commander X programming. You've given me a lot of good ideas.

Another thing I found out about Commander X, it could be a bug. I set up the HT Lighting Script will only run after DUSK. However, if I try to trigger the macro after midnight (00:01 or after), it wouldn't run.

Simon

Yeah, i believe "after DUSK" is valid only until midnight (either 2359 or 0000). Therefore, 2:30am (0230) is not "after" DUSK according to Commander-X.

The same with DAWN, 11:30pm is not considered "before" DAWN.

BTW, have you tried anything that caused the program to crash? I know that you can't assign a WAV file for a macro definition. You'll get a 'run-time error'.

Roland


** Simon, it seems like the two of us are the only ones using Commander-X.

When I have time, I'll need to think of a better way to handle dusk and dawn situations.

No, I haven't caused the program to crash. However, I'm doing the very very simple stuff on it since the computer is only a 486 DX33. It will take a very long time if I try to play a WAV file or something.

Sounds like we are the only ones using the program. BTW, what did you think of the HCA software? I found it better than ActiveHome but not as flexible as Commander X.

Simon

Where is the Commander X software available from and what is it's cost?

Thanks!
Bryan

Brian,

Try www.commander-x.com You should be able to find it there. Keep in mind though it's only beta version and the final release will be out in October. The beta version is free to use and there is no time limit on it.

Simon

I have a correction in my previous GARAGE.SCR

old script
-------------------
IF TIME(less-than)DUSK THEN END ; if not dusk yet, stop script
IF TIME>0400 THEN END ; if after 4 am, stop script

It so happened that, according to the way the original script was written, 11pm (2300) was after dusk, but 11pm was also after 4am (0400), causing the script to END.

This new GARAGE.SCR corrects for that mistake and allows to detect after midnight (0000 to 0400) too.

NEW GARAGE.SCR
---------------------
CHIME.WAV
IF TIME>DUSK THEN GOTO &CheckLights ELSE GOTO &CheckMorning
&CheckMorning
IF TIME(less than)DAWN THEN GOTO &CheckLights ELSE END
&CheckLights
IF B2>0 THEN END
IF B3>0 THEN END
IF B4>0 THEN END
IM_HOME.SCR

I tried this out last night and it seemed to work. If you find a bug in this code, let me know.

Thanks,
Roland


...and by the way Simon, i tried the HCA software. I too thought it was better than ActiveHome, but Commander-X is more flexible.

Roland,

Thanks for the updates. I'll try it tonight and let you know how it's doing. I haven't received the Hawk Eye II yet, but it should be in a day or two. Without the Hawk Eye, I can still trigger your code with let say M1 ON.

Did you happen to get any of your schedules to work properly?

How loud is the chime module? I should've asked when I ordered it:) Will I be able to hear it if I'm upstairs and the module is in the stairway?

I'm now waiting for my SwitchLinc switch to come in. I wish the day could go a bit faster... Finally I can brighten the ceiling fixture from 0% to 30% without full on first. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

P.S. I wish I'd never been to X10 web site and ordered a FireCracker Kit. At first, I just wanted to control my desk lamp from bed, now it's whole house control. I've even gone crazy about the dimming and ordered a fancy light switch. But I'm happy after all. Glad to see everything is on/off by a flip of a switch.

Simon

I just realized something.

The GARAGE.SCR will activate as you leave the house too, causing your lights to stay on while you're gone. This is if you leave after dusk.

The only way to get around it is to have it turn your lights on temporarily (a few minutes), then turn them off. What I did was turn two lamps on for 2 minutes, then turn them off. That way, when coming home, I have a chance to turn on another light before the lamps go out.

** Secondly, I found out that nested scripts (scripts that call another script) may not work. The IM-HOME.SCR that is called from the GARAGE.SCR didn't work for me. I just had to take the code from IM-HOME.SCR and paste it directly into the GARAGE.SCR.

** Lastly (at least for now), in a totally different example, putting in a schedule:

0000 B1 OFF

crashed my computer at midnight for some reason. I got a "out of stack" error and Commander-X crashed. Let me know if anyone else experiences this.

Roland

Roland,
have an idea that may help you in your garage situation. I call it “motion sensor disabler” in my macro. It starts the macro with a command to turn off the RF transceiver with an appliance module. Then after 1 minute, it turns it back on. I use it for a PIP macro that turns the TV to another video input, the front door camera, and puts the program I was watching in the PIP window. The problem I had was every time the motion sensor was tripped by someone at the front door, the PIP window would get smaller, smaller, smaller then big, smaller, smaller… The display of the front camera is for 30 seconds so the motion sensor will only reissue the command after a minute. The motion sensor also trips a remote chime but will only do so every minute instead of every time the motion sensor is tripped.

Anyway, you could only have the RF transceiver operating under certain conditions. You could use time by simply using a cheap timer on the transceiver if time would be enough to control your needs. You could use the status of the garage door, only turning on the RF transceiver when the door is opening or closing, not when it is open or closed. This could be done a couple of ways using wireless door contacts to tell the commander what the door is doing, in turn disabling the motion sensor via the RF transceiver.

Just another idea,
Chris Couture

Chris,

Thanks for the idea about a "motion sensor disabler"! I'm not using yours exactly, but I'll give you 95% credit (I'll take 5%).

I have a utility room that I walk thru to get to the garage. I simply take another Hawkeye and set the motion detector to an unused unit code (for the explanation, I'll use B14, 4 minute delay to OFF) and place it in the utility room.

In my GARAGE.SCR, I add the line: IF B14>0 THEN END

When I leave the house by walking thru the utility room, I would activate the Hawkeye motion (B14=100). Then when the Hawkeye in the garage is activated, the GARAGE.SCR would get to this line and "END" (no lights on).

When I come home, the Hawkeye in the utility room would be obviously off (B14=0). Then when the Hawkeye in the garage is activated, the GARAGE.SCR would see the line as false and continue thru the code (lights on). Voila!

I haven't tried it yet, but I'll let you know. Luckily, I have an extra Hawkeye.

Thanks,
Roland